Trot Buddies!

by shortskirtsandexplosions


Stepping In

It was over an hour later...

Almost the entire room had been cleared... ….

Over two hundred people had passed through the portal before Flash Sentry and Trixie Lulamoon... … …

… … ...and finally now...

“Okay...!” Starlight Glimmer smiled as she stood beside Sunset Shimmer and Princess Twilight. “Second to last group!”

“Flash. Trixie.” Sunset nodded. “You've both been amazingly patient. I'm proud of you two—but I won't gush about it now.” She gestured at the portal. “Go on and step in. Applejack and I will follow through.”

“Reckon it only make sense that we be the last pair.” Applejack said. “Besides, I've enjoyed bein' here.” She tilted her hat back. “A world filled with horses just feels like one big ol' farm, ya get me?”

“I'll... be sure to reflect on that, yes,” Flash said. He glanced aside. “Trixie—?”

Trixie is ready!” The magician barked, sweating suddenly. “Why wouldn't Trixie be ready to go home?! Let's go home!”

Sunset squinted at her.

Flash fidgeted. “Ahem...” He wrapped a hoof around Trixie's shoulder and gently led her to the magic mirror. “...one small step for Trixie...”

“One... b-bigger step for Trixie-kind?” the mare mewled.

“Close enough.” Flash looked over his shoulder at Sunset. “See ya on the other side, Sunny.”

Sunset waved back. A taller, more regal pony beside her also waved. Flash sensed her violet eyes making contact with his face, but he wrenched his gaze off before any sparks could fly.

“Okaaaaaaay...” Flash trotted through the mirror. “Here goes...”

A trembling Trixie fumbled to keep up.

Passing through did nothing at first. Flash felt himself enmeshed in a wild swirl of bright colors. Then—as if with a delayed reaction—he was pulled swiftly forward by a force stronger than gravity. He held his breath and... relaxed—as best as he could. Even as his body stretched and spaghettified, he allowed the magic to run its course.

It only got “freaky” when he felt like his skull was collapsing. There was no pain to it, but he most definitely sensed his entire cranium becoming flatter... rounder. His wings vanished—feathers first—which left a slight trace of melancholy. His limbs noodled out, then restraightened as he took on a bipedal form. During all of this, Flash was vaguely aware of clothes materializing around him—the same outfit he was wearing when he hopped off the sinking cruise ship.

By the time he felt his own normal nose resting in front of his eyes, the teenager had completely relaxed—even as the maelstrom of lights, colors, and sounds swirled to a breaking point around him.

“Trixie!” he shouted in mid swirl. “It's working! We're getting back to normal!”

Somewhere beside him...

...there echoed a cacophony of high-pitched screams.

Blinking with concern, Flash looked to his side.

“Trixie?!”

He sensed a form beside him—a blue form—but she was writhing and twisting within a cloud of menacingly bright light. Energy fluctuated violently between orange and purple, and tiny appendages kicked about as the figure toppled over and over, hollering in Trixie's voice.

“Trixie!!!” Flash shouted. He reached towards her with a human hand...

...just as the two of them were sucked into a blinding white light.